NOTES. 185 
(Northern Province) in April, 1904. Stretched across the wide 
exhalent canals were delicate transparent diaphragm-like mem- 
branes, each perforated by a round osculum ; these membranes 
vanished in specimens killed in formalin, but were beautifully 
preserved in strong alcohol. They did not survive the journey to 
England, where I took the specimens last year, but as the mass 
of the sponge was crowded with innumerable seed-like reproduc- 
tive gemmules, it was readily identified by Professor Arthur Dendy, 
King’s College, London, as being the species Spongilla carteri, 
Bowerbank (Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1863, p. 469, pl. XX XVIIL., 
fig. 20). 
A table of the distribution of Indian Spongillide has been published 
by Dr. Nelson Annandale in the Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 
vol. II., 1906, p. 56, from which we learn that S. carteri has been 
previously recorded from Bombay, Chota Nagpur, Central India, 
Caleutta. Madura (Malay Archipelago), Mauritius, and HKastern 
Europe. In another interesting Paper on “‘Some Animals found 
associated with Spongilla carter’ in Calcutta,”’* Dr. Annandale 
mentions that a fish of a new species and of remarkably small size, 
16 millimeters being the length of a spawning female, ‘* lays its eggs 
in depressions on the surface of the sponge towards the end of the 
cold weather.”’ 
More recently (June, 1907) I have met with abundant growths 
of the freshwater sponge, both massive and encrusting, occurring 
on trunks and branches of trees, high and dry, as much as three 
feet above the reduced level of the water of the tank at 
Horowapotana in the North-Central Province, between Trincomalee 
and Anuradhapura. The specimens were, to outward appearance, 
quite desiccated, but were chiefly composed of myriads of the 
whitish reproductive gemmules, loosely held together by the 
spongy framework, by which these freshwater sponges are able 
to survive the dry season and regenerate when the rains come. 
The substance of the dried sponges is exceedingly friable, and it 
was with some difficulty that I succeeded in conveying a good 
example of the massive form to Colombo. 
The grayish brown Hydra of Ceylon has only a few tentacles, as 
far as I remember five or six. but I have not observed the reproduc- 
tive organs and can therefore only say that it seems likely that it 
will prove to be identical with the Hydra orientalis of Dr. Annandale. 
(The Common Hydra of Bengal, its systematic Position and Life 
History. Memoirs Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. I., No. 16, pp. 339-359, 
1906.) 
April 19, 1907. A. WILLEY. 
* Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, IT., 1906, p. 187 ; see p. 201 of the same num- 
ber for description of the fish Gobzus alcocki, Annandale. 
